


Lovely is the sea

by chaos_is_welcome



Series: Coccham Chronicles [3]
Category: The Last Kingdom (TV)
Genre: Character Study, F/M, Introspection, Origin Story, Slavery, TLKFFF2020
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:06:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,461
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25080601
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chaos_is_welcome/pseuds/chaos_is_welcome
Summary: Finan had once loved the sea.  He remembers riding along the beach with Ciarnan, his father’s man, and seeing the cliffs of Ceann Coir in the distance, the flat green reaches that looked like his father’s table suddenly plunging sharply into the sea. Ciarnan was his father’s man, and taught him more than his father ever did.For the TLKFFF prompt:. "The ocean is full, the sea is in flood, lovely is the home of ships ... the rudder is swift upon the wide sea." - from an 11th century Irish poem, A Storm at Sea, author unknown
Relationships: Eadith/Finan (The Last Kingdom), Finan & Uhtred of Bebbanburg
Series: Coccham Chronicles [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1807663
Comments: 13
Kudos: 25
Collections: The Last Kingdom Fanfic Fest





	Lovely is the sea

**Author's Note:**

> For the TLKFFF prompt:. "The ocean is full, the sea is in flood, lovely is the home of ships ... the rudder is swift upon the wide sea." - from an 11th century Irish poem, A Storm at Sea, author unknown
> 
> I am always so sorry for the typos guys. I usually go back and read my own work after I post it and I am usually horrified by the number of typos. I hope you enjoy. I have to say TLKFFF has just been so much fun, both as a writer and a reader!

Finan had once loved the sea. He remembers riding along the beach with Ciarnan, his father’s man, and seeing the cliffs of Ceann Coir in the distance, the flat green reaches that looked like his father’s table suddenly plunging sharply into the sea. Ciarnan was his father’s man, and taught him more than his father ever did. Ciarnan taught him to ride, and to fight. Finan is certain it is because of things that Ciarnan taught him that Finan is alive at all. His father had Ciarnan killed when Finan was twelve, after Ciarnan dared to censure Connell, Finan’s younger brother, for killing a slave. Finan had ridden to the high precipice of Ceann Coir after that, and had stared at the angry blue green sea frothing below, and cried the tears he dare not let his father see. The sea stretched as far as his eyes could see, and he thought of the possibilities that must exist on that boundless sea. He dreamed of learning to sail and leaving Ulaid, but he knew that it would never come to pass. He was the eldest son of a noble lord, and his story was already written. When he returned home, he found Ciarnan’s sword and hid it in his chamber, thinking of all the times Ciarnan had shown him to fight. 

The sea, though, was wild and free. No man could own it, or make it bend to it’s will. The colors of the sea were as varied as the stars in the sky. Finan longed for that. After Ciarnan’s death, he watched his brother more carefully, and he learned what a cunning bastard the young boy could be. His father made a match for him with a princess in Ui Neill, and once the bride price was paid, his father was the happiest Finan had ever seen him, for Finan’s match would advance their station beyond its current status. While their blood was noble, their lands in Ulaid had been squandered to nothing. They were poor, and out of favor with the foolish king of Ulaid. So Finan and his father, and Conall along with them, was to ride to Ui Neill, and he was to marry a woman he had never met. If Finan could have chosen his bride, he would have chosen Fairlaith, the fisherman’s daughter. They had played together at times, and she was becoming a beautiful woman, with a smile like the morning sun and deep blue eyes that spoke of the sea on a calm day. 

One night, just before they were scheduled to leave for Ui Neill, Finan woke with a feeling of dread climbing in his spine. He reached for Ciarnan’s sword, which he kept close, and swung the blade around to defend himself. His brother took a step back, but Finan saw the knife he tried to hide behind his back. “I heard a sound,” Connell lied, “and was worried for you, brother.” Finan thanked God that night that Ciarnan taught him to be quick. Before they left, Connell married Fairlaith, and told Finan as they rode to Ui Neill what a joy she was to bed. 

The princess of Ui Neill, Maele, was fair, with a smile and a laugh that made men turn their heads. Her dark hair and eyes never betrayed what she was thinking. Finan thought himself fortunate to marry her, and she was a joy to bed, but he soon learned that she did not care for anyone but herself. She was cruel to her ladies, and spoiled by her father. Finan stared out from the ramparts of the castle in Ui Neill, and the deep green of the sea beyond, and longed for a life of meaning. His felt empty. When Maele’s father, Mael Duin, ordered Finan to go fight the Viking invaders at Lough Foyale, he did so gladly. By the sword, Ciarnan’s sword, he felt alive. 

**  
Connell stole everything from him, in the end. First he snuffed the joy and the sunshine out of Fairlaith, until she was a shadow of the girl that Finan once knew. Her bright blue eyes turned dull and pained, and later Finan would regret that he did not do something to save her from Connell's creulty. She died in childbirth, and Finan thought it was a mercy. Then one day Finan returned from months of fighting the Vikings to find that Mael Duin had died, and that Connell was in bed with Maele. Finan should have killed his bastard brother there, with his cock in Finan’s wife, but Finan had been young and foolish and allowed himself to be ruled by his anger. So he let them live and went to gather his thoughts, decide what to do. With Mael Duin's death, Finan should be king, yet there were official declarations that needed to be made and Connell had chosen now to fuck his wife. Or he'd been doing it all along, perhaps, Finan could not be sure.

That mistake cost him dearly, and not a day later he found himself bound in chains as Connell stood on the shore, counting his silver. Finan remembered thinking of Ciarnan’s sword, and mourning it’s loss more than that of his wife. The sea was a sapphire blue when he first felt the bite of Hakka's whip.

Living by the oar, and in chains, Finan came to hate the sea, for on it he was stripped of everything he had once thought about himself. The rich colors he had once coveted bled to black, like the death Sverri fed into the sea.

**  
Uhtred does not let Sverri ruin the sea for him. He tells Finan of learning to sail with Ragnar and how much he loves the sea, even as they freeze in Iceland, even as they pull across the black water and Hakka pays them no mind. When it's over and their chains are gone, Finan Marvel's as his Lord, a man who is truly worthy of following, stands at the bow of the ship and grins into the wind. Finan sees Uhtred's happiness, and he gazes out across the water, searching for the thing he once loved about the sea. It is still boundless, and as he learns to live again, the brilliance of the color returns. Uhtred never asks him to man the oars though, and for that he is greatful.

And then he meets her, with eyes that change from deep blue to a wild deep green, just like the foaming waters of Ceann Coir. It's strange that he thinks of Ireland more after he meets Eadith than he had in years, and he thinks of it without loss, but just as a thing he lived through. Eadith is fierce and fiery and she quickly earns his respect, and his love. She is irreplaceable, and he's proud when he marries her, prouder still when she gives him a daughter with the same ocean eyes. They raise a son who is not theirs and will be king, and a daughter who becomes a warrior as fierce as her father.

When they sail north to finally take Uhtred's birthright, Finan sits at the back of the ship. His Lord is at the prow, with Aethelstan beside him. Finan and Eadith have raised the boy, but now the man must fulfill his role as the son of King Edward. Eadith and Sairlaith sit between Osferth and the mast, twin sets of eyes twinkling in delight as they scan the sea, scan the men, and invariably float back to Finan. Especially Eadith's eyes, watchful and knowing. She smiles at him and her eyes are a deep green just then. Uhtred yells the command, and the oars are pulled in as the sail is unfurled from the yard. The wind carries them effortlessly then. And Eadith grins as she hugs their daughter to her.

He thinks of Uhtred's belief in fate, and his gods. Perhaps Uhtred is right about fate, for in that moment, Finan feels every choice that has been made in is life has brought him here. He once dreamed of the sea, boundless and free, and here he is sailing on it. He is bound to those on this ship, yet it is the type of commitment that makes him feel free, feel as if he is truly living. Perhaps Uhtred's fate is the rudder of the great ship that has drawn him to the sea, and then forced him across it, so that he could be swept along by the wind with the people he loves. The sea is boundless and free, and in that moment, as Eadith's laughter is carried back to him on the wind, intertwined with Sairlaith's, Finan finds he truly loves the sea again.


End file.
